Many political science researchers study the forces that drive the vote. One of the earliest, and most well known, books about election studies is The American Voter. Written in 1960, the book tries to explain a model that describes what drives Americans to vote the way they do. The model suggests that social factors determine ones party identification, which determines one's issue positions and evaluation of candidate's characteristics. These forces all work together to determine how one will vote. This model may or may not still hold true today, as political researchers are not in agreement as to what exactly drives the vote. One thing that does remain true, however, is that factors such as social groups, party identification, issues, and retrospective evaluations all play some part in determining the vote.
Although issues play a role in determining vote choice, social forces and retrospective evaluations are the most important factors the American public takes into consideration when deciding who to vote for. Fewer Americans identify with a political party today- in 1992 about 39% of the American public considered themselves as Independents. Before the 1982 election only 35% reported that they were Independents. This suggests that party identification is on the decline despite the American Voter finding that most everyone had a party identification and that their identification did not change much over their lifetime. (Abramson, Aldrich, Rohde, 225)
Many people change their opinion about an issue over time, and only feel strongly about a few issues. Because Americans lack the knowledge of politician's positions on issues, and lack opinions of their own for the most part, they rely on other factors when determining who...
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...ming. Retrospective evaluations require little knowledge or time and anyone can evaluate the President and the economy fairly quickly. Issues are always going to be important to the few that actively support them, but for the most part we rely on social groups and party identification, or retrospective evaluations when an incumbent is running, to help us decide who to vote for.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abramson, Paul R., John H. Aldrich, David W. Rohde. Change and Continuity in the 1992 Elections. 1995. Washington DC: Congressional Quarterly.
Campbell, Angus, Philip E. Converse, Warren E. Miller, and Donald E. Stokes. The American Voter. 1960. New York: Wiley.
Erikson, Robert S., Kent L. Tedin. American Public Opinion. 1995. Massachusetts: Allyn and Bacon.
Luker, Kristin. Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood. 1984. Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood by Kristen Luker, analyzes the historical and complex sociology of abortion. Luker focuses on three important factors: a historical overview of abortion, the pro-life and pro-choice views, and the direction the abortion debates are going (11, Luker, Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood p. 000). Abortion has always been seen as murder and with the idea that those who are already living have more rights. Back in the days, the laws didn’t give fetus personhood. Also, the laws against abortions weren’t strictly enforced upon anyone. In addition, abortion didn’t seem to be a huge problem, which explains why abortion was ignored in the past.
Milbauer, Barbara. The Law Giveth: Legal Aspects of the Abortion Controversy. Atheneum, New York: 1983.
Works Cited Warren, Mary Anne. On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion. Trans. Array Exploring Ethics: An Introductory Anthology. . 2 nd.
Page, Christina. How the Pro-Choice Movement Saved America: Freedom, Politics and the War on Sex. New York: Basic Books, 2006.
Take a moment and picture a dog in your head. What do you see? You may see many different things depending on your own personal encounters with the species. There are many types of dogs out there. Some small, some large, long-haired or short-haired. There are many variances in what a dog can look like. One thing that does not change, or should not change, is the importance for every dog in this world to be given love and affection, no matter its characteristics. This is what leads me to believe that the obsession with producing and owning purebreds needs to come to a halt. Continuing to create these so-called “best dogs” is dangerous to not only the purebred’s health, but also devalues mixed breeds and can cost them their lives in animal shelters where they may never escape. My interest in this topic caused me to look into seeing what other people felt about it.
Party identification is the political party that an individual categorizes them self with. Political parties came about as a way to organize citizens with similar beliefs and attitudes. These parties then attempt to influence the government by electing members into office. Today there are two main parties people can identify: Republican and Democrat. There is also a third choice, being an Independent, but for the purpose of this paper this group will not be recognized as a political party. These reasons will be discussed later. There are many different theories as to why people do or do not identify with a political party, including social psychology, issue related, and psychological attachments. I believe the social psychology theory has the right idea. Sociology is about studying human society and how it develops and functions. So, it makes sense that social factors would have a big impact on whether we identify with a political party or not.
The debate of abortion continues to be a controversial problem in society and has been around for many decades. According to Jone Lewis, “In the United States, abortion laws began to appear in the 1820’s, forbidding abortion after the fourth month of pregnancy” (1). This indicates that the abortion controversy has been debated far back into American history. Beginning in the 1900’s, legalized abortion became a major controversy. In 1965, all fifty states in the United States banned abortion; however, that was only the beginning of the controversy that still rages today (Lewis 1). After abortion was officially banned in the United States, groups such as the National Abortion Rights Action League worked hard on a plan to once again legalize abortion in the United States (Lewis 1). It wasn’t until 1970 when the case of Roe (for abortion) v. Wade (against abortion) was brought...
...ave a particular breed, you may be surprised to find that 25 percent of shelter dogs are purebred. Only when people refuse to support pet shops, puppy mills, and breeders, will this chain of misery be broken. Next time you stop to look at that doggie in the window, think of all the painful and horrible things, it has been through, and do something positive to end the atrocities of puppy mills.
As humans in our society, we are categorized by stereotypes everyday, I never considered that just mentally identifying with these stereotypes can unconsciously affect my performance. Researcher and author, Shankar Vedantam, in his article suggests that reminding people of their stereotypes can negatively affect their academic performance among other things. He supports this claim by providing data collected from experimental trials, statements from scientists studying the theory and finally real life situations where the theory applies. Vedantam’s purpose is to use the information he found to give notice to the phenomenon. He adopts a didactic tone for the readers of the Washington Post.
Hinman, Lawrence. “Abortion: A Guide to the Ethical Issues.” May 13, 2010. University of San
Everyone should have heard this phrase that dog is man’s best friend. We live with them, love them, and take good care of them. When people talk about dog breed, the advantages and disadvantages of purebred dogs is always a controversial issue. Lots of people like purebred dogs because they are beautiful and cute; some people prefer crossbred dogs because they believe purebred dogs usually have genetic disease. Indeed, many evidence and research show that purebred dogs are easier to have genetic disease, and many purebred dogs die from incurable genetic disease every year. However, people still do not pay highly attendant to this problem. Even though purebred dogs are pretty, cute and inherited pure blood compared with the mixed-breed dogs, people should not excessively breed purebred dogs in order to satisfy our desire because a lot of them suffer serious genetic disease, are abandoned on the streets and performed euthanasia in shelters.
Prejudice, discrimination, and stereotyping are important topics at the cause of debating within social psychology. A stereotype is a generalization about a group of people, in which certain traits cling to all members, regardless of actual individual variation (Akert, Aronson, & Wilson, 2010). As humans, people assign objects and individuals into categories to organize the environment. Individuals do this for not only organization, but also survival. Is stereotyping inevitable? That is the question; according to Devine (2007), it is, but Lepore and Brown (2007) have to disagree. Devine believes that “stereotyping is automatic, which makes it inevitable.” On the other hand, Lepore and Brown are not convinced that stereotyping is automatic, and have claimed, after observation, that it depends on the individual.
Baird, Robert M., and Stuart E. Rosenbaum. The Ethics of Abortion: Pro-life vs. Pro-choice. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus, 1989. Print.
...a dog's third most important sense and they can live a happy and complete life without it.